With an increase in the amount of merchants and customers, both above 45% y/y, and the revenue growth at more than 22% y/y in the last two years, GreenSky (GSKY) is very interesting. Its positive earnings per share in the last three years makes this stock a must follow.

Expected in May 20

Top Performing Stocks For 2017

Call of Duty is going back to its roots. Image source: Activision Blizzard.

On its latest conference call, Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) confirmed that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare fell short of expectations, yet the company turned in a great quarter. The top video game publisher posted growth in revenue and earnings, and increased its annual dividend by 15%.

What happened

Reports surfaced in December that Activision Blizzard’s latest Call of Duty installment — Infinite Warfare — was underperforming the year-ago title by as much as 50%. Those reports proved accurate, although we don’t know exactly how many units Infinite Warfare sold because the company doesn’t disclose that information. On the conference call, however, management explained that the new science fiction genre for the game’s setting didn’t resonate with the player base.

Shares of electronic connector maker Molex Incorporated (MOLX) skyrocketed on Monday morning after reports that the company will be acquired by Koch Industries.

Koch Industries has agreed to acquire Molex for a total of $7.2 billion. This deal will include all outstanding shares of the company’s Common Stock, Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock for $38.50 per share.

The deal has been approved by the board of directors of both companies. Molex will continue to maintain its current management team and its current headquarters in Lisle, IL.

Molex shares were up $9.15, or 31.17%, during Monday morning trading. The stock is up 41% YTD.

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) was last seen trading up 17.1% at $12.91. Its volume of more than 42 million shares equated to right at 3 times normal volume. Transocean has a consensus analyst price target of $9.72 and a 52-week trading range of $7.67 to $14.50. The company has a total market cap of $4.7 billion.

[By Ben Levisohn]

Transocean (RIG)tumbled to the bottom of the S&P 500 today as the entire energy sector got crushed on fears that production would start to grow.

Yes, oil stayed above $50 a barrel, but in a note published this morning, Cornerstone Macro’s Carter Worth warned that a “stuck” oil price could be as damaging as a dropping one:

Then, of course, theres the inconvenient fact that WTI Crude Oil itself is hopelessly stuck in the low $50 a barrel range a level at which it was trading in June of last year. Essentially seven months without any forward progress is the bottom line.

Transocean’s market capitalization fell to $5.4 billion today from $5.8 billion on Friday. It reported net income of $782 million on sales of $7.4 billion in 2015.

[By Todd Shriber, ETF Professor]

None of SQZZ's equity positions account for more than 1.9 percent of the new ETF's weight. Those positions include Dow component General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), Sprint Corp (NYSE: S), Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) and Transocean LTD (NYSE: RIG).

[By Ben Levisohn]

Go back a year, and offshore drillers like Noble (NE), Rowan (RDC), Transocean (RIG) and Atwood Oceanics (ATW) had been all but written off–until they weren’t anymore. Since then, investors have been rewarded for picking winners in the group from the losers, as Atwood Oceanics has more than doubled, Transocean has gained 34%, and Rowan has risen 42%, while Noble and Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO) have dropped 13%.

[By Ben Levisohn]

Shares of Noble have jumped 12% to $7.41 at 2:58 a.m. today, and it’s success has helped boost offshore drillers across the board. Transocean (RIG) has advanced 1.6% to $13.41, Ensco (ESV) has gained 5.8% to $10.73, and Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO) has risen 4.5% to $17.43.

The oilfield services company said it earned 63 cents a share (a figure that excludes $13 million in net unfavorable items), well ahead of the nickel a share in earnings analysts expected. Revenue fell 47.4% year over year to $974 million, also above the $806 million consensus estimate. Transocean said its contract backlog was $11.3 billion as of its February fleet status report. Raymond Jamess Praveen Narra and J. Marshall Adkins reiterated an Underperform rating on the stock following the report. They praised the companys ongoing cost controls and strong revenue efficiency, which they expect to continue. But still arent ready to recommend the stock amid a difficult macro backdrop. More detail from their note:

Transocean continued to minimize costs and maximize efficiency amid a challenging offshore environment, reporting 4Q16 adjusted EBITDA of $414 million, higher than our estimate of $363 million and consensus of $394 million. The beat was driven by lower than expected costs of $344 million (adjusting for favorable litigation), which came in ~12% lower than our estimate of $385 million and guidance of guidance of $375-385 million. Total revenue efficiency came in at 100.3%, as it was boosted by bonus incentives and possibly effective results from the new contracting model, particularly in the high-spec jackup market. The beat to our estimates was also driven by higher than anticipated revenues, which came in at $805 million, above our estimate of $788 million, but below the consensus estimate of $812 million. We note, our adjusted revenue excludes $169 million in early termination fees during the quarter.

The shares are up 6.6% to $14.16 in recent trading, although theyre down 4% year to date.

IPOs like Snap are a rare breed. In looking for companies comparable to it, I looked for listings that sported a post-IPO valuation above $5 billion, went pubic after 2010, and employ a consumer-facing business model. This resulted in an admittedly small sample of highly hyped tech IPOs including Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN), and Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA). For transparency’s sake, I opted to not include Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in this list because its geographic focus and scale made it fundamentally different than the above tech IPOs, although including it wouldn’t have changed the outcome of this analysis.

[By Peter Graham]

A long term performance chart shows shares of Glu Mobile all over the place for investors (but savvy traders could have profitably traded shares) whilepeer Zynga Inc (NASDAQ: ZNGA) has mostly underperformed after the initial surge wore off:

[By WWW.THESTREET.COM]

What could have gone wrong? Cramer said investors only need to remember the IPOs of Facebook (FB) , Twitter (TWTR) , Groupon (GRPN) and Zynga (ZNGA) . All of these IPOs made the markets look fragile and, yes, rigged. But today, the market avoided four major pitfalls.

HCP, Inc. (HCP) is a REIT that focuses on senior housing facilities and other healthcare properties.

With a yield of 5.8%, HCP is the highest yielder of all the aristocrat dividend stocks. HCP has upped its payout for 30 straight years and now pays 57.5 cents per unit quarterly.

[By Matthew Frankel]

One smart way to capitalize on this trend over the next few decades is with a healthcare REIT like HCP (NYSE:HCP), which specializes in private-pay senior housing, medical office, and life science properties.

[By Matthew Frankel]

Healthcare REIT HCP, Inc. (NYSE:HCP) had an eventful 2016. The year started off quite turbulent, with dismal results from the company’s HCR ManorCare properties leading to a surprise loss, but recovered nicely as the company decided to spin off those and other troubled assets. What could be in store for HCP investors in the coming decade?

We believe investors should continue to own three types of bank stocks: “Return of Capital (RC) Stocks”, “Risk On (RO) Stocks”, and “Multiple Revaluation (MR) Stocks.” RC stocks include M&T Bank (MTB), PNC Financial Services Group (PNC), and SunTrust Banks (STI); RO stocks include Bank of America, Popular (BPOP), Citigroup, JPMorgan, and KeyCorp (KEY); and MR stocks include BB&T (BBT) and PNC Financial Services Group (PNC).

[By Lisa Levin] Related TRST Earnings Scheduled For October 21, 2016 Major Accounting Changes Are Coming To The Financial Industry Related MORN One Of The World's Most Powerful Women, Fidelity Personal Investing President Kathleen Murphy, To Tell Her Story At The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards The 2017 Benzinga Global Fintech Awards Will Include An 'Unprecedented Group' Of Judges Morningstar Packs Conference Lineup For Financial Advisors (Investor’s Business Daily) Companies Reporting Before The Bell Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE: COL) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $1.31 per share on revenue of $1.33 billion. General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) is expected to report quarterly earnings at $0.17 per share on revenue of $26.46 billion. Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $1.60 per share on revenue of $9.32 billion. Interpublic Group of Companies Inc (NYSE: IPG) is expected to report quarterly earnings at $0.03 per share on revenue of $1.76 billion. Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE: SLB) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $0.26 per share on revenue of $7.02 billion. SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) is expected to report quarterly earnings at $0.83 per share on revenue of $2.21 billion. ManpowerGroup Inc. (NYSE: MAN) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $1.11 per share on revenue of $4.68 billion. Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $1.15 per share on revenue of $593.82 million. Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE: SWK) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $1.19 per share on revenue of $2.74 billion. WABCO Holdings Inc. (NYSE: WBC) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $1.44 per share on revenue of $721.89 million.

With an increase in the amount of merchants and customers, both above 45% y/y, and the revenue growth at more than 22% y/y in the last two years, GreenSky (GSKY) is very interesting. Its positive earnings per share in the last three years makes this stock a must follow.

Swiss National Bank decreased its position in shares of HCP, Inc. (NYSE:HCP) by 13.1% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,499,221 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 226,400 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s ho

The aging baby boomer generation is set to materially increase demand for senior housing. The question isn't if but when because the demographic shifts this giant generation will engender are largely unavoidable. Investors looking at the senior housing sector have a number of options to pick fro

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) is an American natural gas and crude oil pipeline company, and with a $60 billion market cap, one of the largest. The company has had a difficult time since the start of the oil crash, with its stock price dropping by almost 40%. Despite this, as we w